16/11/2017 BBC News at One

Zimbabwe awaits news of the future

of its deposed leader,

Robert Mugabe, after a takeover

by military leaders.

Mr Mugabe remains under house arrest

as Zimbabweans try to come

to terms with the end

of his 37-year leadership.

There is this anticipation,

this feeling that people

want to celebrate, and yet,

so many people here have learnt

the hard way that politics

is a very dangerous business.

People get arrested,

they disappear, there are beatings,

there are killings.

We'll bring you the latest

from our correspondents reporting

from inside the country.

Also this lunchtime...

Police say the final number

of people known to have died

in the Grenfell Tower fire is 71.

It has taken so long

because of the sheer challenge

Grenfell Tower has placed

on all the emergency services,

but particularly the specialist

teams we use to recover all those

that have died.

The actor, Kevin Spacey,

faces 20 more allegations

of inappropriate behaviour

at the theatre he used to run.

A pledge to build more homes -

the Prime Minister promises to take

personal charge of dealing

with Britain's housing crisis.

Russian athletes could face a second

Olympic ban for not doing enough

to address doping allegations.

400 million dollars is the bid and

the piece is sold.

And the lost Leonardo goes

for a record-breaking price.

And coming up in the

sport on BBC News...

Are young people being

priced out of football?

A BBC Sport study suggests the next

generation of season-ticket

holders are yet to emerge.

Good afternoon and welcome

to the BBC News at One.

The future of Zimbabwe's

long-time leader, Robert

Mugabe, remains unclear

after he was placed under house

arrest by the country's military.

Two envoys from South Africa have

arrived in the capital, Harare,

to try to hold talks

with the 93-year-old

and with Zimbabwe's generals,

who deny there's been a coup.

The army's intervention

is being seen by many as an attempt

to prevent Mr Mugabe's wife,

Grace, from succeeding him.

Richard Lister reports.

They are headlines most in Zimbabwe

thought they would never see, the

man who had helped the nation in an

iron grip the 37 years swept aside

by the military and now in custody.

It is a lot to take in.

Taken by the

army, quite positive. We are a bit

uncertain about what will happen.

We

are still...

We have to respect our

president because we have to give

him a retirement package, find

somewhere to keep him safe.

The

military says it is keeping the

president say for now, armoured

vehicles are still patrolling the

streets of Harare today, the Army

very much in charge, but also

maintaining calm. President Mugabe

has been kept out of sight to

maintain this pretence of it not

being a coup, the Army needs him to

resign to allow a transition of

power. Talks are under way with

South African envoys but some

reports suggest he is demanding to

serve his full term.

President

Mugabe is still in power, the man in

charge of Zimbabwe, he is protected

by the Army. They got has happened.

But what has not happened is a coup.

Whatever you call it, waiting in the

wings is Emmerson Mnangagwa, once

Robert Mugabe's 's right-hand man,

sacked as vice president last week,

widely believed to have engineered

the takeover. The whereabouts of his

main rival, the President's wife,

Grace, are known and some of those

in the governing party who supported

her in the past and criticised the

military yesterday are now falling

into line.

Please accept my

apologies on behalf of myself, we

are young people, growing up, we

learn from our mistakes. From this

big mistake, we have learnt a lot.

But will reshuffle at the of Zanu-PF

be enough for these opposition

activists with the movement for

Democratic change? They have battled

Robert Mugabe for most two decades

both. Opposition parties may not see

a path to power.

It is urgent we go

back to democracy, it is urgent we

go back to legitimacy. But we need a

transitional period and I think and

I hope that the dialogue can be

opened between army and Zimbabweans.

Mr Mugabe's official residence

filmed here eight years ago may

still have the trappings of power

but its occupant has lost his

authority. Where once could

grandstand to the world, now others

are deciding his fate. The man who

said only God could remove him, the

victim of a more mundane power

struggle. Richard Lister, BBC News.

Our correspondent,

Anne Soy, is in Zimbabwe.

Just bring us up to date

with what's going on.

Well, a lot of intense negotiations

going on behind-the-scenes. We

understand the regional bodies in

southern Africa as well as the

continental body are heavily

involved in trying to broker some

sort of political solution to this

but there is a constitutional

quagmire. They are very keen to

ensure this does not appear like a

coup even though it really does in

the way it has been conducted. For

now, the military says President

Mugabe remains in charge, even

though he is under house arrest.

Apart from that, we have driven

around the country, talking to

people, you do not get the sense

that it is a country in crisis,

people are going about their

business. There is a reduced

presence of people in the terms.

However, when you speak to them,

there is optimism. They are hoping

the change they have been waiting

for a long time has finally come,

that their fortunes could change,

especially economically, but they do

not know how the next few days and

weeks will be.

Many thanks.

Reporting from Zimbabwe.

Our correspondent, Andrew Harding,

is also in Zimbabwe.

He's been speaking to people who've

only known life under Robert Mugabe.

We have come to a very ordinary

township to talk to people

about what's going on in Zimbabwe

and two things are very striking.

Everyone is feeling this enormous

sense of anticipation.

They know, they believe,

that President Robert Mugabe,

the only man they've ever known

in charge of this country, really

is on the cusp of stepping down.

And so there is this

anticipation, this feeling that

people want to celebrate.

And yet, so many people here have

learnt the hard way that politics

is a very dangerous business.

People get arrested,

they disappear, there are beatings,

there are killings.

And this has been something that has

been a reality in Zimbabwe

for many, many years.

So people are waiting, they're

waiting for it to become official.

They are waiting either

for President Mugabe to go

on television and announce his

resignation, or perhaps

for Emmerson Mnangagwa,

his former deputy, who was ousted

and who has now come back

on the back of this military coup,

to go on television himself and say

it is over.

And then I think we will see people

breathing out, people relaxing,

and taking perhaps to the streets

to mark this extraordinary moment.

But until then, people are waiting,

they are quietly overwhelmed,

I think, and overjoyed,

by and large, by what is happening,

but they are also aware, of course,

that this is not some popular

uprising, this is not

the opposition taking over,

this is still Zanu-PF,

this is still the party that

has run things and it

will carry on to run things.

And so people are not sure

exactly what will change

in their lives when,

and if, President Mugabe

is finally out of the picture.

The BBC's Andrew Harding there.

Police investigating

the Grenfell Tower fire say

the remains of all those

who were killed in the blaze

have now been recovered.

71 people are now known to have died

when the blaze ripped

through the tower block in June,

including a stillborn baby

delivered in hospital

after his mother escaped.

Tom Burridge reports.

Grim statistics do little to convey

the scale of this tragedy.

But after five months,

the police now have a

definitive figure.

70 people, they say,

were killed in the fire, as

well as a stillborn baby.

It's not about a number,

it's about the

people, it's always been

at the heart of what we do.

The challenge of it

has been immense.

We've had our specialist

teams work through

about 15 and a half tonnes of

debris, on each and every floor of

Grenfell Tower, by hand,

to find every single fragment

that they can of all

those that died.

That's been extremely

distressing to the

families and indeed to those

involved in the operation as well.

The complexity of the police's work

means a community waits.

And scepticism and

anger are prolonged.

Anita Raphael knew people killed.

She used to play in

Grenfell Tower when

she was a child.

It's going to take

a while for us to know

the truth.

You know, I don't think it's

going to be like now or like the

ending of the year, I think it's

going to take about two years for

everything to coming to light,

you know, what's in the dark

must come to light.

That's how I see it.

Because we have no information,

really, what's going on.

You know?

Nothing at all.

In the days and weeks

following the fire, there was a

lot of confusion about how many

people had been killed.

Previously, the police had

said around

80 people had died.

The final death toll is lower,

they say, because of a small

number of cases of fraud

and because some of

the victims, who came

from

different countries,

were reported missing several times.

People living in this

part of London have

constantly demanded

answers, but a vocal

critic of the council

in the wake

of the fire says the debate

about how many victims

there were should now end.

I think we have to accept

that this is

the final number.

People are still angry

about the chaos as it developed.

I do pay tribute to

the police and to the

coroner's service.

It's turned out to be far more

complex than anybody

thought it was going to be.

Officers are examining

millions of documents

relating to the refurbishment

of the tower before the fire.

They are interviewing

thousands of people and

examining the role of dozens

of companies involved.

Any prosecutions are probably

still a long way off.

Tom Burridge, BBC

News, in west London.

20 people have claimed

they were victims of inappropriate

behaviour by the actor

Kevin Spacey, following

an investigation by

the Old Vic Theatre in London.

Mr Spacey was artistic director

there between 2004 and 2015.

Our entertainment correspondent,

Lizo Mzimba, is at the Old Vic.

This comes from an investigation by

the Old Vic into Kevin Spacey's time

there.

That is correct. They engaged

a law firm to investigate once the

allegations began to emerge a few

weeks ago. They said 56 people

contacted them with information, 20

of those people alleged

inappropriate behaviour by Kevin

Spacey. This ranged from him making

them feel uncomfortable through to

sexually inappropriate behaviour.

The bulk of these events took place,

alleged events, took place between

2004 and 2009 in the time he was

artistic director. They say the bulk

of the alleged events took place at

the Old Vic theatre itself. They

apologised for not having created an

atmosphere where people could feel

free to speak out. They said

possibly one of the causes was Kevin

Spacey's star Xavier. One of the

stars of the stage and off screen.

-- behaviour. One of the people who

said he behaved inappropriate calls

them, the inquiry encouraged 14 to

talk to the police because they said

what had happened could constitute a

criminal offence. Three of them said

they had a ready done so. They asked

Kevin Spacey to take part in the

investigation but received no

response. They say they are amending

the codes of conduct to try to

prevent something like this in the

future.

Thank you.

Theresa May has said she will take

charge of the Government's plans

to build more new homes to fix

what she's called

a broken housing market.

The Communities Secretary,

Sajid Javid, has announced

that he will intervene in the case

of 15 local authorities

in England which have failed

to produce a local plan for housing

in their area.

Our political correspondent,

Leila Nathoo, reports.

Time to get Britain building. The

housing market is broken, the Prime

Minister says, and she wants to take

personal charge of the response.

I

want to make sure young generations

can have that same opportunity to

have their own home, the house or

flat that will work for them. That

is why it is so important the

Government and I am putting our

focus on housing.

New figures out

this morning showed 217,000 new

homes were added to England's stock

last year, an increase of almost

30,000 on the previous year. The

Government once took up the rate and

today announced two new measures to

help. Housing associations borrowing

will no longer be classified as part

of public debt. The hope is that

allows them to invest more to build.

And ministers say they will

intervene in 15 local authorities

which have failed to produce housing

plans. This morning, a promise from

the Secretary of State to make a

giant leap forward.

Re-election, day

after day, week after week, to give

this country a housing market that

works for everyone -- real action.

In next week's Budget, you will see

how seriously we take the challenge,

just how hard we are willing to

fight to get Britain building.

Ministers calculation is housing is

such a pressing political issue they

must act. The Conservatives need to

reach out to young people so drawn

to Labour at the election, but there

is still a debate within government

over just how far to go.

Burrowbridge to invest in

house-building or encourage the

private sector to do more --

borrowed big. Labour argues low

interest rates is an incentive to

take out loans.

Homelessness up 50%,

rough sleeping doubling in our

cities in recent years, overcrowding

on a scale we have not seen since

the Second World War. We need an

emergency budget to bring forward

significant housing investment,

nothing that has been said today

recognises the scale of the problem

or brings forward the resources we

need.

Allocating scarce resources is

the Chancellor's challenge next

week. Housing is sure to be high on

his list.

Our economics correspondent,

Andy Verity, is here.

The minister pledging

action on housing there

in next week's Budget.

But today, Labour produced

detailed plans of its own.

That is right. Sajid Javid's

announcement was about reclassifying

the debt. Only two years ago at

Office for National Statistics said

the debt owed by housing association

should be regarded as the public

debt and it threatens to constrain

the amount they can borrow although

in fact it did not. We are talking

about the same status quo as we had

before 2015. Labour's plans, they

say they need it on a greater scale,

we have not got numbers, but 100,000

affordable homes a year to meet

demand. The number we need to build

is more like 240,000 to meet overall

demand. But it is OK for Labour in

the sense they do not have to put

that in their day-to-day spending.

They are planning to increase that,

John McDonnell did a speech this

morning where he said they would be

£17 billion available for public

services, most of which will be

taken from raising corporation tax.

Those are two separate issues.

Investment in housing and higher

spending.

Thank you.

Russia could be barred

from competing in the Winter

Olympics, in February,

after the World Anti-Doping Agency

said it hadn't done enough

to address allegations

of widespread cheating.

The organisation says it's

maintaining a suspension put

in place two years ago,

when a report accused

Russia of systematic

state-sponsored doping.

Our sports correspondent,

Richard Conway, reports.

It was Russia's moment to shine,

but evidence of state-sponsored

doping at the Sochi Winter Olympics

in 2014 continues to leave a stain

on the country's sporting character.

Russia's hopes of clearing its name

suffered a blow today.

The World Anti-Doping Agency thinks

not enough has been done.

It wants access to the Moscow lab

suspected of being the hub

of its doping operation and is also

demanding acceptance that senior

Sports Ministry figures

were complicit in a cover-up.

The argument from our Russian

friends today was these top two

are mainly political rather

than normal procedure.

I'm not sure that either

of them are, but that's

a different argument.

But they haven't been fulfilled.

Independent reports last year

by the Canadian law professor

Richard McLaren implicated

the majority of Russian Olympic

sports in cheating, prompting

a partial ban at the Rio 2016 Summer

Games.

The Russian Minister of Sport

directed, controlled and oversaw

the manipulation of athletes'

analytical results, or sample

swapping, with the active

participation and assistance

of the FSB.

But Russian authorities

insist they are continuing

their antidoping reforms.

We are doing all our best

to progress in antidoping activity

among the whole of Russia.

I mean in prevention, in education,

in result management,

testing and in investigation.

With just under three months to go

until the Winter Games

begin in South Korea,

Russia's Paralympians are currently

ruled out of taking part.

The final decision is

due in mid-December.

But the International

Olympic Committee must also

make its decision and rule if it's

going to leave a sporting

superpower out in the cold.

Richard Conway, BBC News.

Our top story this lunchtime.

Zimbabwe awaits news

of the future of its deposed

leader Robert Mugabe,

after a takeover

by military leaders.

And still to come.

Theresa May calls on all sides to

act with restraint. And coming up,

the highest price paid for a work of

art, a painting by Leonardo da Vinci

fetches more than £340 million.

Coming up in sport -

Mark Stoneman puts himself in prime

position for an opening spot,

with a century in England's final

warm-up match before

the start of next week's

Ashes Test with Australia.

The US Secretary of State Rex

Tillerson has called for a "credible

and independent" investigation

into the plight of hundreds

of thousands of Rohingya Muslims

who've fled Myanmar,

because of a violent crackdown

by authorities there.

800,000 Rohingya Muslims have now

crossed from Myanmar

into neighbouring Bangladesh -

because of what's been described

by the United Nations

as "textbook ethnic cleansing".

Our correspondent Justin Rowlatt has

been to Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh

to see what's rapidly becoming

the world's biggest refugee camp.

A Bangladeshi army speedboat patrols

the river that marks

the border with Myanmar.

From the boat, you can see tents

and hundreds of people

trapped on the beaches.

They're desperate to escape.

So desperate they'll

take incredible risks.

Some 60 people arrived on this raft

made of plastic containers,

lashed together with rope.

One big wave could

have broken it apart.

Yet babies and grandparents

made the journey.

They tell the same, now-familiar

stories of violence and horror.

"They kept us on that beach

for a month and a half," she says.

"We had so little food.

The army shot my husband,

blinding him in one eye."

Like many of the new arrivals,

they are in terrible shape.

Noor is two and half years

old and is severely malnourished.

If she doesn't receive nutritious

foods soon, it could affect her

development for life.

One in four children

are malnourished.

We actually expect the situation

to deteriorate before it improves.

We have a nutrition

crisis here, now.

12,000 people will be given food

at this one feeding station today.

It is basic nutrition -

just rice, lentils, and a little

oil, but it is enough

to keep you alive.

There are now more than 800,000

Rohingya refugees here.

No wonder they're calling this

place the mega camp.

Just look at it - there are now more

people living here than in Leeds,

Glasgow or Liverpool.

And every day, it grows and grows.

Things are getting more orderly.

The mega camp is getting

roads and bridges.

Thousands of toilets have been dug

in just the last few weeks.

Geophysicists use drones to help

find aquifers deep underground.

The blues, those are

our clays and shales.

And the reds are aquifers -

clean water.

So that's telling

you where to drill.

How important is clean water

in a situation like this?

Clean water is fundamental

to everything here.

Without that, we will have

outbreaks of disease -

cholera, typhus, within days

or a few weeks at the most.

But the truth is this is still

basically a giant, open-air prison.

Soldiers guard the roads

out of the camp.

Refugees aren't allowed to leave,

and they can't go back to Myanmar.

Despite all the evidence

of atrocities, earlier this week,

the Myanmar government issued

a report that exonerated

its army from any blame.

Justin Rowlatt, BBC

News, Kutupalong.

Thousands of women who discover

they have advanced breast cancer

will have access to two new drugs,

which been shown to slow down

the disease and delay

the need for chemotherapy.

They've been approved for NHS use

in England by the National Institute

for Health and Care Excellence -

and it's thought around 8000 people

in England will now have

access to the medications.

Our health correspondent

Sophie Hutchinson is here.

What difference access to these

drugs likely to make to patients?

It's hoped it will make a

significant difference to those

patients, who suddenly discover they

have advanced breast cancer. At the

moment those patients would probably

go straight on to have chemotherapy,

which in many cases can have quite

debilitating side-effects. The real

benefit of these two new drugs,

palbociclib and possibly is as well

as slowing down the cancer of the

two years the side effects seem to

be minimal -- reverse the clip. One

woman said aside from a little

fatigue, no one would know she was

ill and it was life changing. They

are for hormone related breast

cancers. Until now treatments have

been based on trying to prevent the

hormone oestrogen from kind of

fuelling the cancer but these two

drugs work in a completely different

way. What they drew is they try to

block the molecule which tells cells

you must divide and that's what

cancers want to do, divide and grow

into larger tumours. Because they

are not growing it seems to trigger

this programme within them, a kind

of programme of death, if you like,

so the cells start to die. To put

into some context, scientists have

described this as one of the biggest

breakthroughs this type of medicine

for the past 20.

Thank you.

Figures out this morning reveal that

retail sales fell by 0.3% in October

compared to the same

month last year.

But despite the annual fall,

the Office for National Statistics

says the underlying pattern is "one

of growth," as the three months

to October show a rise

of 0.9% in the quantity

of goods people bought.

A British explorer who went

missing on an expedition

to reach a reclusive tribe

in Papua New Guinea has been

seen alive and well.

Benedict Allen, who has no mobile

phone or GPS device with him,

was dropped by helicopter

in the remote jungle

three weeks ago.

He's now been sighted

near an airstrip and efforts

are under way to bring him out.

A 500-year-old painting of Christ,

believed to have been

by Leonardo da Vinci,

has been sold in New York

for a record £341 million.

The painting is known

as Salvator Mundi,

the Saviour of the World.

It's the highest auction price

for any work of art.

Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519,

and there are fewer than 20

of his paintings in existence.

Our arts correspondent

David Sillito reports.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, we

moved to the Leonardo da Vinci, the

Salvator Mundi.

The Salvator Mundi,

by Leonardo da Vinci. For this sale,

the record price was just over $100

million for an old master. It just

28 seconds for that record to fall.

At 110 million, who will give me...

Two minutes later, this.

190, 200

million is bit, at 200 million. At

200 million.

It had broken all sale

records and we were only just

getting started.

This painting is

what you might call the ultimate

trophy work. There's only one in the

world. So if you buy it you are the

only person who's got the last

Leonardo da Vinci in private hands,

and you have got the ultimate

trophy.

290? 300. I thought so. 300

million.

APPLAUSE

And that was the record for any

painting, smashed, and there was

still a long way to go. The journey

to this extraordinary moment is a

story fit for a thriller. It was

part of Charles the first's

collection. In the 18th century

someone decided to Adam Beard to the

face than four decades its

whereabouts were unknown. Then, in

1958, it was sold at auction for £45

about $60 and in 2005 it was decided

by a group of experts that this

really was the work of Leonardo da

Vinci. The clue was that face, that

hazy shimmer, his signature style.

There are those who still have their

doubts but a leading Leonardo expert

is convinced.

There are no serious

arguments about it not being by

Leonardo. The only serious argument

is the extent to which it's been

damaged and repaired, which is quite

extensive.

19 minutes into the sale

it had stalled at $370 million. And

then this.

400.

400 million.

Adding

Christies' commission and that's a

total price of $450 million. Game

over.

Sold.

The name of the buyer,

even where they come from, remained

secret. But wherever they are,

they've just made history. David

Sillito, BBC News.

Our arts editor Will

Gompertz is with me.

This is a staggering amount of

money.

It's mind blowing. When you

think about this painting, which was

sold in 2000 for around $10,000, it

was overpainted at that stage and

they discover this figure the niece

of -- the discover this figure

beneath. But throughout that period

there have been questions about its

authenticity, so it is this person

who has spent $450 million on a

picture which the majority of people

say is by Leonardo, but a

significant minority say could

possibly not be by Leonardo. Most

people think it's all by Leonardo,

plus it's in terrible condition. So

it's an extraordinary purchase from

that point of view. To put it into

context, the most ever paid at

auction for an old master previously

was in 2002, for Rubens, about $76

million. The most ever paid before

last night for any work of art at

auction was around $179 million, in

2015, for the caso's women of

Algiers. So to go from that figure

to $450 million, you just have to

say it, a bit of wood with painting

on it, albeit they say by Leonardo,

its eye watering!

Indeed it is. Many

thanks.

Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Louise Lear.

Here's Louise Lear.

I have my own masterpiece behind me.

I'm just going to concentrate on

this beautiful picture of Perth and

Kinross, it's beautiful in Wales,

but the moment it is cloudy and wet.

It's a cold front moving across the

country and as it does so it's

bringing rain. To the south of this

cold front we have some sunshine,

but it's miles. Behind it, it's

introducing cold air, windier

conditions with a scattering of

showers. In fact, gale or severe

gales and the far north of Scotland.

But generally speaking not bad. Some

decent spells of sunshine. If you

catch a shower they will be fleeting

but they could be heavy, with

squally showers, Sam hail and maybe

sleet and snow above 200 metres.

It's windy as well. Northern

England, Northern Ireland, not too

bad afternoon. And improving picture

into Wales. Getting colder, yes, but

the weather front will sit across

East Anglia, down through the M4

corridor by the end of the

afternoon. It's miles, 14-15, if you

keep some sunshine for the end of

the day. The front clears through

during the early evening. High

pressure builds from the West. Like

winds across England and Wales.

Temperatures will fall sharply. We

keep the wind and the showers in the

far north. Not quite as cold here.

Tomorrow morning, a shock to the

system, we could see lows of around

-4 or minus five degrees across

England and where is, a cold, frosty

start in rural spots. They could be

early morning mist and fog and after

the frosty start some decent spells

of sunshine for England and while.

The winds feature in the north,

still driving in some showers across

the far north and west but

temperatures down in comparison to

today. We'll see highs of around

7-10d. If we go into the weekend a

bit of a tricky one. Not too much in

the way of drastic changes, but the

cold air trying to hold on across

the north and east. But all the time

milder air and whether friends

slowly trying to influence the

story. They will introduce more

cloud and showery bits and pieces of

rain to Wales and the south-west.

Milder conditions, but frosty

starts, but some sunshine in the

north and east. 6-7 Baha'i. A very

similar story as we move into Sunday

as well. Southwest cloudy and damp,

the further north and east, the

greater chance of seeing some

sunshine through the weekend with

temperatures struggling just a

little. I'll be back throughout the

rest of the afternoon with Simon.

A reminder of our main

story this lunchtime.